by Bobby Coles

Created on: June 25, 2009   Last Updated: May 08, 2012

In the annals of educational lore, standardized testing should appear as a footnote at the very end. This method of teaching has a dire and drastic impact on the quality of education being handed out to the future of the world.

Standardized tests work on the principle that everyone is similar, and does not take into account all of the different hardships and strife that many students have endured along their path to enlightenment.

Teachers that feel coerced into teaching to the test lose their effectiveness, and their integrity. A teacher needs to teach, and there are many teaching moments that do not come from a book. An effective teacher navigates through the school day with unmitigated temerity, and seeks to illuminate the minds of his or her students.

By teaching to a well-defined curriculum based on statistical data, a teacher's impact is no longer indelible, it becomes rather ordinary.

A teacher should teach how they feel is right. After years of invaluable experience, or even as a fresh faced rookie, a teacher should just plain teach. The structured format of teaching to appease the standardized testing scores impacts effectiveness, because it ostensibly forces a teacher into the bland lecture format. Gone are the impulsive and spontaneous moments of brilliance, where ideas are brought to life and nurtured.

When teaching for standardized tests, a teacher loses focus of the reason why he became a teacher in the first place. A teacher will guide the students toward the right answers for the test, as opposed to guiding them to come up with some answers of their own. This is the impact that standardized tests have on teachers.

Standardized testing has a major impact on how teachers teach, and it is contradictory to how teachers should be teaching. The main concern with standardized testing, although good in theory, is that public perception rears its ugly head and forces school boards to try and keep up with the Jones'.

The standardized tests are also generic, and therefore are limited in their grasp. Things such as language impediments are not considered. The wording in standardized tests is often convoluted, which can rattle students without a mastery of the English language.

Teachers suddenly begin to teach to the test, in order to seem as though they have become the latest miracle worker, usurping Anne Sullivanfrom the annals of history.

By teaching to the test, a teacher focuses solely on certain areas of study, and begins to leave out valuable information

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